Paris a Consensus All-American

By Athletics Communications

University of Oklahoma

MARCH 31, 2007

CLEVELAND -- The Saturday morning announcement of Courtney Paris’ inclusion on the Kodak/WBCA All-America Team has made the Sooner sophomore a consensus first team All-American for the second consecutive season.

Paris has been named a first team All-American, or to the only team announced, by every accredited outlet. The list of recognized women’s basketball outlets are Associated Press, ESPN.com, Kodak/WBCA, USBWA and Wooden.

The dominant center joins Stacey Dales as the only two-time consensus All-Americans in OU history.

Where Paris distinguishes herself from Dales, and any other player in the last 13 years, is that she is only player to earn AP first team honors in her first two collegiate seasons. Thus she is the only player to earn true consensus All-America honors since the AP began naming All-Americans in 1995.

“I set a standard for myself as a freshman and I was determined to meet those goals again this year,” said Paris. “I can’t do much about how people vote, but I can take care of things on the court and help my team win. I think I was able to accomplish those things this season.”

Few thought Paris could duplicate, let alone top her dominant freshman season, but that was exactly what Paris did in 2006-07.

The California native improved or held steady in every statistical category except field goal percentage. She finished the year with averages of 23.5 points, 15.9 rebounds, 3. 4 blocks, 1.7 assists and 1.0 steals. The California native was first nationally in double-doubles (33), second in rebounding, third in scoring, fourth in blocks per game and 16th in field goal percentage (.570). She also extended her NCAA record double-double streak to 61 games.

After becoming the only player to reach 700 points, 500 rebounds and 100 blocks as a freshman, she repeated that effort in her second season with 775 points, 526 rebounds and 111 blocks. Paris set the NCAA record for fastest pace to 1,000 career rebounds, when she reached the mark in her 66th game. She became the first player in NCAA history to reach 1,000 boards before the end of her sophomore season. The two-time All-American also set another NCAA record with her two season total of 1,065 boards.

By the end of her sophomore season, Paris owned 12 NCAA records.

Paris is also up for the AP Player of the Year, Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award. The AP award will be announced on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. EDT.

The Naismith award will be announced on Monday at approximately Noon EDT.

The Wooden Award will be announced at the Los Angeles Athletic Club Saturday, April 7.

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